**** Peter Navarro-Alonso’s gripping exploration of Gesualdo’s life and music

NAVARRO-ALONSO In flagrante delicto  Paul Hillier, cond; Theatre of Voices; Ensemble Stralo  OUR 8.226933 (64:59 ) Reviewed from a wav download with resolution 16/44.1

Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo (ca. 1561-1613) was both musically gifted and a tortured soul. As is often the case, Gelualdo’s emotional struggles manifested themselves in harm not just to himself, but to others as well. Gesualdo murdered his wife and her lover when the composer found them in bed together. It appears that Gesualdo also abused his second wife. Whether Gesualdo confessed his own conflict and pain in his compositions – most notably, his series of madrigals – is a matter of debate. What is certain is that those compositions are both keenly expressive, and extraordinarily forward-looking in their use of chromaticism and dissonance. In the liner notes for a new Our Recordings release, Danish-Spanish composer Peter Navarro-Alonso (b. 1973) reveals: “Since first encountering Gesualdo during my student years, I have been fascinated by both his music and his persona.” A commission by violinist Christina Åstrand for her instrumental Ensemble Stralo (Radi Åstrand Radev, oboe; Christina Åstrand, violin; Therese Åstrand Radev, cello; Per Salo, piano), and the vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices (Elise Torp and Signe Asmussen, sopranos; Miles Lallemant, countertenor; Paul Bentley, tenor; Jakob Bloch Jespersen, bass-baritone), gave Navarro-Alonso “a unique opportunity to dive into that fascination. This resulted in the hour-long composition In flagrante delicto, which, through a series of Gesualdo quotations, embarks on a journey into a sick and darkened mind heading toward dissolution and decay.”
In flagrante delicto is cast in two parts, comprising, respectively, four and five movements. The opening four (Morro, lasso; Beltà, poi che t’assenti; Che sì picciol pianto; Io pur respiro) juxtapose Gesualdo’s madrigals exploring unrequited love with Navarro-Alonso’s modernist commentary. The five movements of Part Two are played without pause. Here, snippets of Gesualdo’s music become ever more manic, fragmented, and repeated, often intertwined with harsh, dissonant instrumental outbursts. The bass-baritone, repeatedly proclaiming “Llegamos a la folía!” (“We arrive at madness!”), personifies Gesualdo. In the final movement, the nightmare resolves to a heartfelt prayer, “Sancta María, ora pro nobis.”
Navarro-Alonso’s work is deftly crafted and intensely dramatic. The composer notes that In flagrante delicto was composed in close collaboration with Christina Åstrand and conductor Paul Hillier. Those artists, along with Ensemble Stralo and Theatre of Voices, premiered In flagrante delicto, and subsequently performed it on several occasions. Their familiarity with the work is evidenced in a recording that teems with both intensity and beauty. I confess that I think Gesualdo does quite well on his own in depicting emotional pain and desperation, and probably doesn’t need any augmentation. But Navarro-Alonso’s In flagrante delicto nonetheless provides a fascinating take on the Italian Renaissance composer’s music and life. Recommended. Ken Meltzer